Birmingham is the better city for food IMO. Its a fun place!
My kids are 3 and 5, and the oldest is just now able to control a suitcase well and hes very tall. We love our ebag MotherLode backpacks. (Someone here recommended them to me and I wish I could recall who!) We would use those for the kids stuff and suitcases for us, so each parent had a backpack, suitcase, and a free hand for a kid. Now we still usually do that setup, but will occasionally give our big guy a suitcase because it makes him happy haha
How has the process been gate checking the stroller for you? Debating if we should buy one in CA or bring ours.
Nearly 5 years ago DH and I purchased a set of the Travel Pro Platinum Magna 2 bags. We each have a checked, carry on and international sized carry on bag from this brand and series. I recall at that time looking for a bag that was really durable, had great spinner wheels and these were frequently recommended by flight attendants. I got tired of replacing bags every year or so and had been eyeing Briggs & Riley bags but couldn't swallow the price tag. So my compromise at the time was this. I don't know if they still make them anymore but those bags have been with us on every international trip since then and a good number of domestic trips as well. They fit a ton and can take a beating. The handles, wheels and zippers are all still in perfect working condition. I recently just got rid of a couple of Delsey bags that had far less mileage on them and were in need of repair.
I would possibly consider a https://trunki.com/ I had them for each of my kids, then if you needed them to you could put them on it and drag them. My youngest was about to turn 4 when we went to WDW, no chance he was pulling a roller through the large airports without me getting upset with him. But with the Trunki being new he was still excited about it and did well.
No, you can't book one flight with cash and one with points on the same transaction. They will be separate confirmation numbers.
But downgrading to the venture one will keep the account open and not affect my score right?
The only way closing the card is going to affect your score is in the amount of utilization. If you don't need the CL for utilization the closed account stays on your account for 10 years and helps with average age of accounts. If you're not going to use the card there are very few reasons to keep it open.
We’ve never had any issues. We’ve been able to gate check both his stroller and car seat multiple times
I’ve seen those but we’ll already have his stroller so I think it might be too much to also bring a Trunki plus I don’t think he would sit on it for long
My family are frequent AC flyers. Not sure what info you are looking for, but I can tell you that they use dynamic pricing -- they do not drop mileage required closer to the date, quite the opposite. They release award seats at 355 days. Some routes have more seats than others, so look at positioning if possible. I have flown in economy on older planes and it's not terrible (newer planes not so great). Their extra legroom seats are pretty decent for domestic travel. If biz class seats are priced outrageously, then I'd def fly in economy, depending on the length of your flight (I try to save my points for international travel).
depends on when you wanna go I look at when the calendar drops they tend to release a few saver fares right away but not always I've had good luck. have been able to get 120k points for air France for business multiple times now right when the schedule drops I think its 60 for the economy. 30k fares are over IMO.
My husband and I flew Air Canada for our cruise in June, and it didn't go well. We used the Chase portal with our CSR to book our flights way in advance with United--which then was switched to an Air Canada flight. We had picked seats on our first flight, but were unable to after the switch to Air Canada. When we went to check in to our flights, it showed that they had bumped both of us to standby. I ended up making it on the plane, my husband did not. We had an 9am flight the day before the cruise, and he didn't end up making it to Vancouver on until 11pm. On top of that, they lost some of our luggage. It was what was supposed to be a carry-on bag, but with the switch from United to Air Canada, the plane they were using was small, so the carry on baggage had a smaller requirement than most airlines. We had to check my bag that had all my important stuff in it (like I said--it was planned as a carry-on!). A lot of expensive outdoor wear (important for an Alaska cruise!), and things particular to me that I was unable to replace before embarkation. We ended up spending our whole morning before boarding in Vancouver trying to replace nearly all my clothing and some other lost items.
